How To Exorcise Capitol 'Ghosts'

December 12, 1985|The Morning Call

Ghost voting has a long and ignoble history in the Pennsylvania General Assembly. Newspapers across the state - including this one - have frequently reported instances when legislators were not in the Senate or the House yet the record showed them as present and voting. Over the years hundreds of votes - perhaps thousands - have been registered in the names of legislators who were not in the chamber when votes were tallied. The following examples - confirmed by legislators - are typical of this abuse:

- In May 1982, the Republican-controlled House approved Gov. Thornburgh's controversial budget 102-93. The 102 affirmative votes were the constitutional minimum required to assure passage. The vote was solely on party lines. However, when the vote was taken, there were only 101 Republican members in the House. The 102nd - Lehigh County Rep. George Kanuck - was not in his seat, indeed was not in the House at all. Somebody elsepushed the green button on Mr. Kanuck's desk and registered what proved to be the winning vote.

The leadership of the House did nothing to disqualify this absentee vote.

- In January 1985, Rep. James D. Williams was critically ill and confined to a Philadelphia hospital. No less than five times during the period of his hospitalization, Rep. Williams was recorded as being in the House and voting.

The leadership of the House did nothing to disqualify these absentee votes.

- In February 1985, Sen. J. Doyle Corman Jr. took a business trip to Florida. On three consecutive days while the senator was out of the state, he was recorded as present in the Senate and voting.

The leadership of the Senate did nothing to disqualify these absentee votes.

The examples of "ghost" voting in the General Assembly are many. Frequently all members of the Philadelphia "delegation" are recorded as voting when only a few are actually in the Capitol. Some legislators whose votes are counted are not even in Harrisburg. Some absentee legislators have been known to charge the taxpayer the $75 per diem for attendance at the Capitol (and using their recorded vote as evidence of presence) and collecting the money. Others try but don't get past the Senate and House watchdogs.

Although the Senate does not have a rule that prohibits this practice, the House does. The problem is that the leadership of the House has no interest in enforcing the rule that proscribes ghost voting, as the House rule states, under penalty of punishment "in such manner as the House determines." Because the House has never got this far, it's a mystery what punishment the House leaders believe is appropriate.

The reason why the legislators want to be recorded as voting is political. They are afraid that if the public knows they arenot at their jobs in Harrisburg, they are not doing their jobs. That is a matter of perception, not necessarily of fact. However valid their fear of a political opponent's using a poor voting record against them in a campaign, that is not sufficient reason to deceive the public or conspire with a colleague to help deceive the public.

The most effective way to get rid of ghost voting is for the press to publish the names of the ghost voters every time their names are available. That way the public can decide whether ghost voting is right or wrong - in person, at the ballot box.